1994 Portuguese Grand Prix


The 1994 Portuguese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 25 September 1994 at the Autódromo do Estoril. It was the thirteenth race of the 1994 Formula One World Championship.
The 71-lap race was won by Damon Hill, driving a Williams-Renault. Teammate David Coulthard finished second, achieving his first podium finish, with Mika Häkkinen third in a McLaren-Peugeot. The win, Hill's fifth of the season and third in succession, enabled him to move within one point of Drivers' Championship leader Michael Schumacher, while the 1-2 finish allowed Williams to take over the lead of the Constructors' Championship from Benetton.

Weekend report before qualifying

Team Lotus had rehired Philippe Adams the pay driver of the Lotus team to partner with Johnny Herbert due to financial issues. Meanwhile with Michael Schumacher still banned, the Benetton team had continued to run with JJ Lehto for another race with Jos Verstappen which also meant of course it was Damon Hill's perfect chance in the Williams to close the points advantage to Schumacher as he did so by winning the race despite having a scary moment during qualifying with Eddie Irvine.

Qualifying

Damon Hill whilst on a flying lap had a scary moment with Eddie Irvine's Jordan as the two collided which caused Irvine to spin and Hill to rollover whilst trying to improve on his qualifying lap. Which also left Gerhard Berger to take pole position for Ferrari ahead of Hill, David Coulthard in the other Williams followed by Hakkinen 4th in the leading McLaren-Peugeot, followed by Alesi who was 5th in the second Ferrari, Ukyo Katayama 6th for Tyrrell-Yamaha, as the top 10 was completed by Brundle 7th in the second McLaren-Peugeot, Barrichello 8th for Jordan ahead of Frentzen 9th for Sauber and Jos Verstappen 10th for Benetton.

Race

At the start it was Gerhard Berger leading the early stages for Ferrari ahead of Coulthard who got ahead of Hill on the start, Hill and Alesi who got ahead of Hakkinen and Katayama was 6th for Tyrrell. Berger lead the early stages for Ferrari before retiring on lap 8 with his gearbox failed, as Katayama's gearbox had also failed by lap 27 which promoted Rubens Barrichello into the points for Jordan as the pit stops did not change the order of the top 6 as it was still Coulthard leading ahead of teammate Damon Hill, Alesi, Hakkinen, Barrichello & Brundle, before Coulthard ran wide whilst trying to lap a backmarker on lap 33 which allowed Hill to edge ahead of the Scotsman. By lap 39 the other Ferrari of Jean Alesi had retired whilst trying to overlap the Simtek of David Brabham and the two collided forcing both drivers to retire. Soon afterwards, Jos Verstappen was able to pass Martin Brundle's McLaren for 5th and the order after the second round of pit stops had seen no change of the order as it was Damon Hill who made it 3 wins on the trot ahead of Williams teammate David Coulthard who was 2nd which also gave Williams the lead in the Constructors Championship with their 1-2 result ahead Mika Hakkinen who third for McLaren, Barrichello 4th for Jordan, Verstappen 5th for Benetton & Martin Brundle 6th in the second McLaren rounding out the top 6.
Olivier Panis originally finished 9th but was disqualified for having illegal skidblock wear.

Classification

Qualifying

PosNoDriverConstructorQ1 TimeQ2 TimeGap
128 Gerhard BergerFerrari1:20.6081:21.863
20 Damon HillWilliams-Renault1:20.8031:20.766+0.158
32 David CoulthardWilliams-Renault1:21.1201:21.033+0.425
47 Mika HäkkinenMcLaren-Peugeot1:21.2511:21.700+0.643
527 Jean AlesiFerrari1:21.5171:22.086+0.909
63 Ukyo KatayamaTyrrell-Yamaha1:21.5904:03.441+0.982
78 Martin BrundleMcLaren-Peugeot1:21.6561:22.035+1.048
814 Rubens BarrichelloJordan-Hart1:21.8391:21.796+1.188
930 Heinz-Harald FrentzenSauber-Mercedes1:22.7951:21.921+1.313
106 Jos VerstappenBenetton-Ford1:22.6141:22.000+1.392
119 Christian FittipaldiFootwork-Ford1:22.6361:22.132+1.524
124 Mark BlundellTyrrell-Yamaha1:22.2881:22.971+1.680
1315 Eddie IrvineJordan-Hart1:23.4111:22.294+1.686
145 JJ LehtoBenetton-Ford1:22.6131:22.369+1.761
1526 Olivier PanisLigier-Renault1:23.7111:22.672+2.064
1610 Gianni MorbidelliFootwork-Ford1:22.9741:22.756+2.148
1729 Andrea de CesarisSauber-Mercedes1:22.8851:22.888+2.277
1823 Pierluigi MartiniMinardi-Ford1:23.2431:23.464+2.635
1924 Michele AlboretoMinardi-Ford1:23.3641:24.186+2.756
2012 Johnny HerbertLotus-Mugen-Hondano time1:23.408+2.800
2125 Éric BernardLigier-Renault1:25.0391:23.699+3.091
2220 Érik ComasLarrousse-Ford1:24.1921:24.306+3.584
2319 Yannick DalmasLarrousse-Ford1:24.4381:24.920+3.830
2431 David BrabhamSimtek-Ford1:24.5271:24.514+3.906
2511 Philippe AdamsLotus-Mugen-Honda1:25.3131:25.708+4.705
2632 Jean-Marc GounonSimtek-Ford1:25.6861:25.649+5.041
DNQ34 Bertrand GachotPacific-Ilmor1:27.9601:27.385+6.777
DNQ33 Paul BelmondoPacific-Ilmor1:32.7061:29.000+8.392

Race

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings
;Constructors' Championship standings